The Ultimate Sacrifice

Sermon for May 17, 2009 The 6th Sunday After Easter Text:  John 15:9-17 Title:  The Ultimate Sacrifice A.  One January afternoon in 2007, 50-year-old Wesley Autrey was waiting with his two young daughters to board a train at Broadway's 137th Street station in Manhattan, when the unthinkable happened.  According to CBS News, Cameron Hollopeter, 19, fell onto the subway tracks while suffering a seizure, just as an oncoming train was approaching.   In a split second Autrey, a construction worker and Vietnam War veteran, jumped onto the tracks to save him.  As the train barreled toward them, unable to stop in time, Autrey realized he didn't have time to lift Hollopeter to safety.  So he threw his body on top of the still convulsing young man, pinning him down in the shallow drainage trough, roughly a foot deep, between the tracks. The train's front two cars rolled over them with just about two precious inches to spare before the operator was able to bring it to a stop.  Hollopeter and Autrey emerged largely unharmed.  Cheers erupted and Autrey was hailed as a hero. But as he told The New York Times, "I don't feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right."   What is it that makes someone a hero?  Certainly part of it is standing up for what one believes in.  But in addition, we also think of someone as being a hero when he or she sacrifices at great personal cost for a cause or for another human being.  Oftentimes we think of heroes as people who make the ultimate sacrifice for others, namely, the giving of their lives.  Memorial Day weekend is next weekend, and although much of the meaning of Memorial Day has been lost in the retail shopping frenzy, it actually commemorates those members of the armed forces who gave their lives for the cause of freedom.  It is something that should be remembered and celebrated.  After all, Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for His friends."   But however true this may be, in this morning's passage of Scripture, Jesus was making a different point.  Jesus wasn't talking about heroes, per se; He was talking about Himself.  And the ultimate sacrifice of His life for our salvation is the basis for this morning's passage of Scripture.   B.  But let me start at the beginning.  John's account differs from the other Gospel's in that after their final meal together, Jesus entered into an extended conversation with His disciples.   He begins this morning's Scripture passage by asserting that He loves His disciples, not with a passing "See ya later!" love, but with a love as deep and as profound as the ocean depths.  The Greek word used here for "love" is phileo, from which we get the word "Philadelphia", also called "The City of Brotherly Love."  Phileo in classical Greek describes the love that a sibling might have for another family member, but in John the word is used interchangeably with another Greek word for love, "Agape".  Agape love differs from all other kinds of love in that agape love gives selflessly to another person without expecting anything in return.  Agape love is not the love between husband and wife; that kind of love mutually gives and receives.  But a soldier dying for country, for example, is an expression of agape love.  God dying for us is agape love.  So when Jesus talks about loving the disciples as friends, He means the kind of love that is much deeper than what we might attribute to simple friendship.  It's more than just a connection of shared common interests and goals or a positive regard for a buddy or pal.  Friendship, in the way that Jesus means it, is grounded in a deeper love that is beyond measure and beyond imagination.   It is also called grace, the love of God that we have done nothing to earn but which God gives freely to us, simply because we are we.   And this is key – it is the kind of love that God gives to creatures that He wants to be in deep relationship with.   The reason that Jesus is willing to sacrifice His own life for His friends is because He loves us so much, and He wants to see us in relationship with the Father.  "As the Father has loved me," said Jesus, "so I have loved you; abide in my love."  Jesus and the Father have a very special relationship as the only Son of God; He was the One who was embraced and held by the Father all the way from the manger to the tomb.   But now this is the way Jesus loves us. "You did not choose me but I chose you," Jesus said.  To be a "friend" of Jesus, then, means to be one who is loved in a very special way.  Jesus loves us enough to die for us and rise again from the grave for us.  But this kind of love also calls us to follow Jesus' example. "This is my commandment," says Jesus to his disciples, "that you love one another, as I have loved you".   We are called to emulate Jesus in our love for others.  It's easy to love people we like.  But Jesus calls us to love even the unlovable, because we have also been unlovable to God, and He continued and continues to love even us.   Jesus also tells His disciples in this passage that His love also creates a relationship of openness in which He discloses everything he has heard from his Father to us.  We learn about God because we have the Holy Spirit, who is the living Lord Jesus present with us today, revealing the things we need to know and the things we are to do from God Himself.  We have the Spirit illuminating Scripture so we might become better acquainted with the Father.   And we are not to keep this knowledge quiet.  Our personal experience with God becomes the basis of our own testimony to others of God's goodness in our lives.  We might not be able to perfectly exegete a passage of Scripture, parsing verb tense and noun root words.  We might not all be Biblical scholars.  But no one can tell our faith story better than we can, and that is all God requires of us to do.  Tell our story, and let the Holy Spirit open up the heart of the listener to receive and believe. During his days as president, Thomas Jefferson and a group of companions were traveling across the country on horseback.  They came to a river that had left its banks because of a recent downpour.  The swollen river had washed the bridge away.  Each rider was forced to ford the river on horseback, fighting against the rapid currents. The very real possibility of death threatened each rider. After several had plunged in and made it to the other side, a bystander who had just happened to come along while all this was going on asked President Jefferson if he would ferry him across the river. The president agreed without hesitation. The man climbed on, and shortly thereafter the two of them made it safely to the other side. As the fellow slid off the back of the saddle onto dry ground, he was asked by a member of the group why he chose the President of the United States to ferry him across the river.  The man was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the president who had helped him. "All I know," he said, "Is that on some of your faces I could see the feeling of 'I can't do this,' and on some of your faces I could see 'I can do this'; His was an 'I can do this' face." You see, it is not necessarily the depth of our knowledge that powers our testimony.  It is the sincerity of the witness.    We have noted before that the original disciples moved from being bumbling but well-meaning followers to real apostles in the space of three years.  As we shall discuss in a couple of weeks, their real graduation, you might call it, into true leaders and evangelists for the new Church was at Pentecost, when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them.  But now remember that John's Gospel doesn't so much try to be historically accurate as it much as it wants to theologically accurate.  John was written last; he had the other Gospels from which to draw, and He wasn't compelled by the Lord to write the same thing all over again.  John's Pentecost happens right after His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  But it is anticipated even here.  The disciples are told that they have moved from the status of servants to the status of friends — those for whom Jesus has given his life.  Incumbent upon them, therefore, is to love one another.  Jesus has chosen and appointed his disciples so that they might go out and bear fruit. The only way they can do that is to abide in him, and the only way to abide in him is to keep his commandments to love one another.  So when the disciples follow Jesus' commandments, the circle is completed. In order to show that they love Jesus, they first should show love to one another, just like the Son showed to them by dying for them.  He showed selfless love towards us.  We follow in His footsteps by showing selfless love for others , and that is how God's love moves out to others — from the Father to the Son, from the Son to the disciples, and from the disciples to one another and to the world, the desired recipients of God's love from the beginning.   For Jesus, "laying down" His life meant a painful physical sacrifice. We may never be called to do that for another, we may never be called to jump onto someone's body to prevent them from being killed by a speeding subway train, but there are lots of ways to nevertheless lay down our lives for another.  We may need to amputate our personal ambitions in order to do what's best for our families.  We might be called to give sacrificially of our hard-earned money in order to care for someone who is experiencing a crushing need. We may experience a call to give up a lucrative career in order to pursue a ministry that serves people the rest of the world has forgotten.   It's all the same thing.  It's not focusing solely on the self as we go through life.  It's spending time with God through prayer, worship, Scripture study, and being with God's people.  It's going through life with other-tinted glasses, asking ourselves (as well-worn as this phrase is) "What would Jesus do?", and then responding accordingly.   The teacher in an adult-education creative writing class once told her class to write "I love you" in 25 words or less, without using the words "I love you." She gave a time limit of 15 minutes.  A woman in the class spent about ten minutes looking at the ceiling and wriggling in her seat.  The last five minutes she wrote frantically, and later read her piece to the class:   "Why, I've seen lots worse hairdos than that, honey." "These cookies are hardly burned at all." "Cuddle up -- I'll get your feet warm."   When we are called to love like Jesus loves, it is creative, specific to the situation, and heartfelt.  It doesn't have to be hard or costly.  It can be simple and direct.   C.   In the midst of all this talk about commandments, Jesus issues an aside that is perhaps the best news of all in this passage full of good news.  Jesus says that following His commandments is not a burdensome thing; rather, it is a lifestyle that brings joy. He tells them these things so that he might find joy in them, so that he might delight in their obedience, love and fruitfulness. These instructions have an intrinsic benefit for the disciples as well — that their joy might also be made complete.   All of us are looking for joy.  We find joy, real joy I mean, in genuine relationship with others and with God.  Joy comes through being in a community of faith that is nurturing and healing.  Joy comes through finding a God-given meaning to life.  Joy comes through relationship with Jesus, because we know and feel that we are loved and special to God.  Joy is the result of loving, being loved, and finding purpose in life.  Now, lest we forget, we need to remember that it is just as easy to receive joy as it is to resist it.  Each of us decides on a daily basis whether we want to appreciate or resist God's gift of joyous living.   "Three minutes had elapsed since I had taken my seat at the counter. Waitresses passed me by; two cooks and a busboy took no notice of my presence. My ego was soothed only because the truck driver seated next to me was ignored as well. "Maybe this counter is off-limits," I said to him. "Maybe they are short of help," he responded. "Maybe they don't want our business," I said. "Maybe they are taking care of those at the tables," was his reply. The hands on the clock continued to move. "Maybe they don't like us," I insisted. "The air conditioning feels so good I don't mind waiting," he said. At this point, a harried waitress stopped to tell us that the water had been cut off and the dishwasher was not functioning. My nameless compatriot smiled, thanked the waitress and left. I did not like him. Three times I had sought his support for my obnoxious attitude, but he had let me down. Only later did I realize that he had chosen to practice what I preach."   Friends, the bottom line is that we who are Church are called to be incubators.  We are called to be in relationship with people and just love them with the love of Christ until the fear and sickness that just comes from life gives way to joy.  And Church, we are called to be evangelists.  Not necessarily the Billy Graham type of evangelist, but the type who, yes, gets into relationship with people and loves them with the love of Christ until they come to see that they are loved by Jesus, the Author of real love.   No one can say how to do that.  But with each one of us, in each circumstance that comes along, we'll know.  Amen.. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA  20177 703-344-3569 almond_keith@yahoo.com